Using strip piecing - Checkerboard

By Spotlight

Strip piecing eliminates the need to work with small individual pieces of fabric & can save lots of time when making quilts with complex blocks. The basic technique involves cutting strips, stitching them together & cutting them into units which are stitched together into blocks.

Final Result

Materials

• light, medium & 1 dark flat fat 1/4's (plain or printed)
• matching Gütermann cotton thread
• rotary cutter, mat and quilters rulers
• quilting pins, tape measure
• scissors, seam ripper
• sewing machine with 1/4” foot

Step 1

Finished block size is 8” using two contrasting fabrics, plain and patterned (or light and dark).

Cut 2 x 2 1/2” strips from each fabric.

Step 2

Sew a plain strip to a patterned strip. Join another plain strip to the other side of the patterned strip sewing from the opposite end. Finally sew on another patterned strip. Press the seams to the patterned fabric.

Step 3

Arrange strips to create the checkerboard effect.

Step 4

Stitch the rows together to form the block.

Note

All fabrics should be 100% cotton, washed & pressed. 1/4” seam allowance used throughout unless otherwise indicated. Read all instructions carefully before commencing the quilt blocks.

Note

All strips are cut across the width of the fabric. When cutting the strips add 1/2” to the finished size of strip (i.e. 2” strip cut 2 1/2”). Stitch alternate rows in the opposite direction to prevent the set from distorting.

Diagram pictured

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